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A Matter of Honor

By Stephanie Sullivan

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Chapter One

Joey Landry leaned back in her office chair and gave the overdue bills stacked high on her desk a resentful glare. Most of her morning had been spent sorting through the various invoices, which ranged from current veterinary bills, after a recent afternoon spent with Dr. Winslow and a sickly newborn calf, to her late aunt Eva’s overdue medical bills, which seemed to multiply at the turn of every new month.
Joey walked over to the large bay window that overlooked her property. Resting her head against the cool glass, she watched as the cows grazed in the nearby pasture, while the chickens pecked the ground and darted quickly between their long legs so they wouldn’t be trampled. The sun began its slow descent on the horizon, casting a hazy glow over the farm and it’s many inhabitants.
She sighed.
In a couple of hours, it would be time to make dinner for her guests, and she couldn’t help but worry over the fact there might not be enough food in the pantry to fix a proper meal for six people. Although she strictly budgeted her meager pay for groceries and the other necessities required to keep the fledgling bed-and-breakfast inn afloat, there never seemed to be enough money to spread equally throughout the entire month with new bills trickling in daily.
She closed her eyes and reminisced for a moment about her aunt Eva and how the two of them had spent day after day for many years working diligently to keep the inn running smoothly, like a well-oiled machine. It was a rare occasion to see her aunt, a tiny but fierce Cajun woman, in a panic over anything, and when something did perchance happen to ruffle her feathers, she always handled it in the same fashion, by taking a few deep breaths and stating resolutely, “If God brings us to it, then He will see us through it.”
And, as always, everything worked out for the best, even in the direst of circumstances, but Joey never could fathom how her aunt remained so calm and collected through it all. Even now, as her pulse quickened and her breathing became labored over the looming burden of bills needing to be paid, she still couldn’t manage to grasp that unshakable faith her aunt had so easily attained in similar situations.
Joey took a couple of deep breaths to try and calm her nerves. There was no sense in getting worked up over it, and if she had to sell a couple of her cattle to make ends meet, then so be it. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time she had done so.
Joey caressed the gold chain around her neck before pulling it from the confines underneath her shirt so she could look at it. Dangling from the chain was a small ring with two birthstones conjoined in the center. It was a keepsake given by her aunt Eva when she was just two, and she rarely parted with it, except while taking a shower and sleeping. Otherwise, it remained around her neck for safekeeping, and as a constant reminder that, despite her passing, her aunt Eva was always with her in spirit.
A loud knock on the office door startled her from her reverie, and she turned to find her twelve-year-old son, Evan, standing in the doorway with a look of sheer panic on his face. He held his hands up and began signing so fast Joey could barely discern what he was saying, so she walked over to him and grabbed his arms to try and calm him down.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, carefully enunciating each word so he could read her lips, which he was very good at doing.
He pointed in the direction of the kitchen and took off running down the long hallway. Joey hastily stuffed the necklace underneath her shirt and ran after him. When they opened the swinging door to the kitchen, she was greeted by a familiar loud screeching noise emanating from the refrigerator, which bounced precariously on its foundation.
Without hesitating, Joey rounded the butcher-block table situated in the middle of the room and edged closer to the right side of the refrigerator. Clenching her fists, she hit hard against the well-worn groove located near the top right corner of the unit. Seconds later the noise and jerking stopped and, with one forceful push, she managed to slide the refrigerator back against the wall.
Evan leaned on the kitchen counter and grinned. Having spent most of his life living and working on the estate, he was very accustomed to the many quirks that prevailed in every nook and cranny of the large inn. The old and rickety refrigerator was just one of numerous gadgets and appliances that still worked on a wing and a prayer. Even though they should have been replaced many years ago, the consistent lack of funds always stood in the way of doing so. Thankfully, she had the knowledge and skill to work on them, whether it needed a firm whack in just the right spot or something more detailed that required tools.
Joey retrieved a basket from one of the overhead cabinets and handed it to Evan, who grabbed it and sprinted out of the kitchen, heading in the direction of the chicken coop outside to gather eggs, like he had done many times before. After he disappeared from her sight, she leaned against the counter, closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath.
Although her mind raced with a thousand things she needed to be doing, the uncertainties that troubled her kept her still. Her guests, a family of four named the Stevenson’s, would be departing in the morning, and there were no other guests signed up on the register for at least three weeks. Fall, her busiest season, was still a month away, and that left thirty-one long days of worrying over where her and Evan’s next meal would come from.
Nestled on the outskirts of Anders Crossing, a small town in southern Louisiana, the inn was one of the largest dwellings in the vicinity, but there were rarely any visitors who passed through, unless they happened to be visiting friends or family in town or in Junction City, a bustling community located fifteen miles east.
But there was one advantage, though, and that was there were no hotels nearby, not even in Junction City, so the inn was the only available place within a hundred-mile radius for vacationers to stay, unless they opted to room with the family members they were visiting, which amusingly enough, most people didn’t.
Still, as much as she loved the close-knit town, Anders Crossing didn’t have much to offer in the way of tourism, which was a disheartening downside, especially when your earnings depended on tourists. Besides the inn, there were only five other businesses in the area, and those consisted of a medical clinic, a veterinary clinic, a grocery store, a farm supply store and a gas station. Like the inn, the school and community church were located on the outskirts of town, where most of the residents lived within walking distance of each other.
Since it was in such a remote area, a person would be hard-pressed to find someone there who hadn’t lived in Anders Crossing his or her whole life, and seldom did a stranger invade the community who wasn’t related to someone nearby. Even the Stevenson’s, who hailed from Minnesota, had a cousin living in Junction City. Like most small towns Joey visited, everyone knew each other, and if you were a stranger, you didn’t remain that way very long because people always greeted you with open arms and welcomed you like family. She couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
Joey glanced toward the kitchen window when a strong gust of wind rattled the closed shutters and caused them to bang hard against the side of the inn. She had overheard from some of the townspeople that the tropical storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico had been upgraded to a category one hurricane. She wasn’t worried, though, since bad weather was such a common occurrence in Anders Crossing and nothing she wasn’t used to. Also, the inn had been fortified to weather strong storms and had survived them all thus far, including the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.
Fortunately, the storm was predicted to make landfall farther east, so they weren’t under any imminent danger, other than a deluge of rain and possible high winds. Since she rarely watched television or listened to the radio, she gathered most of her information by the gossip filtering through the community, especially from the elderly residents, who could predict the weather better than any meteorologist she had seen on TV. Going by the talk swirling around town, if the hurricane didn’t gather more strength before landfall, it should pass through rather quickly.
Joey glimpsed at the clock on the wall. It was nearing five, and with that in mind, she feverishly began combing through the cabinets and refrigerator to try and find something she could make from scratch that would be suitable for dinner. The Stevenson’s would be returning from their day trip to New Orleans within the hour, and more than likely they would be starving after the long drive.
There was a pound of leftover chicken she could boil and just enough flour, butter and milk remaining to make dumplings. There was also one big bag of peas left in the freezer that she could serve as a side dish. While she continued searching through the cabinets for dessert ideas, a faint noise caught her attention.
Joey stopped to listen.
It seemed to be coming from the front of the house, and her eyes grew wide once she realized it was the visitor bell in the foyer. Bounding from the kitchen, she walked hurriedly down the hallway until she reached the large living room, where she slowed to a steadier pace, so as not to appear too anxious to whoever was visiting, just in case she was fortunate enough to be getting a new customer. Since the Stevenson’s weren’t home, and the postman had already come and gone, she was more than a little curious.
Once she turned the corner to the front foyer, she was surprised to find a tall man in a black and gray business suit standing on the opposite side of the registration desk. Given that the most dressed-up man she had seen in Anders Crossing was Pastor Thomas in his Sunday best, the sight of a man in a fancy suit was a new one to behold. Yet, by the way he pulled and tugged at his necktie and jacket cuffs, he didn’t seem very comfortable in it.
She spotted a suitcase and briefcase on the floor beside him and her heart skipped a beat. With any luck, he would be staying, and not just stopping by to ask for directions, like most people did on their way through town.
He was quite tall and his shoulders were broad, which made him appear larger than life. It wasn’t until she took her place behind the makeshift desk that she noticed the color of his eyes. They were such a light shade of blue they appeared almost gray, which was a striking contrast to his dark brown hair. For some strange reason, it caught her off guard and left her momentarily speechless, which didn’t happen very often. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she held out her hand to greet him.
“Hello. Welcome to Anders Crossing. I’m Josephine Landry, but everyone calls me Joey.”
When he wrapped a hand around hers, she was instantly struck by the roughness of his skin. She assumed, perhaps rather prematurely on her part, that he would have soft hands, like the other few businessmen she’d met through the years who spent most of their time behind a desk. This man’s hands were callused, like those of the farmers she knew, who slaved from daylight to dusk in their fields.
“Nathan Griffin. Nice to meet you. Do you have any rooms available? I’ll be staying at least a week.”
Joey did her best to keep from jumping up and down with joy, but she couldn’t help feeling extremely grateful and happy over the fact she might be able to pay her bills that month and buy groceries too.
She opened a tattered spiral notebook, which served as a registry book, and glanced over that week’s itinerary, even though she knew, without a doubt, she had rooms to rent. Still, she hated to appear as desperate as she felt, and she didn’t want to startle him with an overly enthusiastic “YES!” so she took her time and tried to act professional.
“I do have some vacancies. Would you prefer a full-size or queen-sized bed? I also have one room with two full-sized beds.”
When he removed several large bills from his wallet and placed them on the desk, she thought for certain her heart had stopped beating.
He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “One full-sized bed is enough. No one will be joining me.”
His comment made her face heat, although she had no idea why, but she did feel embarrassed over not asking if he would be staying alone or if he had a wife or other family members with him, like she inquired with all her customers. Joey silently chastised herself for being so ecstatic over having a customer she had forgotten her manners.
When he signed the notebook, she noticed he wasn’t wearing a wedding band. There wasn’t even an indention or tan line where a wedding band might have been, so she guessed he wasn’t married. It was just an assumption. though, and she wasn’t about to ask him. The last thing she wanted to do was scare a customer away with nosey questions, and it was none of her business anyway, despite living in a small town where people made it a point to pry in each other’s lives, warranted or not.
“I’m sorry, but I have to ask—you know about the storm, don’t you?”
It probably sounded like a ridiculous question, but she couldn’t in good conscious let him stay there unless he knew about the threat of torrential downpours they were sure to get over the next few days. Perhaps he would consider it best to stay somewhere else farther inland and, honestly, she couldn’t blame him if he decided to.
Nathan nodded and smiled. “That’s kind of why I’m here. I was on my way to a conference in Gulf Shores, but my boss called a little while ago and said it was cancelled because of the weather. I had planned on lazing around the beach for a few days after the conference, but Mother Nature interrupted that too, so it looks like my mini-vacation just got moved here to Flanders…no, wait…Sanders…”
He waved his hands in the air and looked around with a perplexed expression.
“Anders Crossing,” she reminded him.
He glanced at the floor and shuffled his feet for a moment. “Yes, of course…Anders Crossing. You’ll have to forgive me. I’ve been on the road since early this morning, and I think the constant driving is starting to get the best of me.”
He flashed her a somewhat shy yet genuine smile, and his deep voice resonated in the small foyer, sending an unexpected chill up her spine.
“Well, I’m flattered you chose to spend your vacation here, although I’m not so sure it will be as exciting as being a beach bum.”
He laughed as he leaned slightly forward, and the proximity made Joey hold her breath. “Oh, I don’t know. I think being caught here during a storm sounds pretty exciting.”
Although he probably didn’t mean for it to sound as flirty as it came across, nonetheless, heat rose to her cheeks once again, and she lowered her head so he wouldn’t notice. There was no denying Nathan Griffin was what her aunt Eva would call a “charmer.”
Once the payment and other details were completed, she motioned for him to follow her and they walked to the tall staircase in the hallway, where they ascended to the second story level.
“We have cell phone service here, although it can be sketchy at times, but unfortunately we don’t have any type of wireless Internet connection. Getting new technology in these parts takes an act of Congress because most of the elders here complain about it. They tend to think new gadgets are part of some government conspiracy. When the cell tower was put up a couple of years ago, you would have thought the world was going to end.”
Nathan chuckled at her remark.
“There’s only one family staying here now, but they’ll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning, so you shouldn’t be bothered with any noise, in case you need to get some work done.”
He followed her gaze to the briefcase he carried and he shook his head. “Thank you, but that won’t be a problem. If I do any work while I’m here, it won’t be much. This is the first vacation I’ve had in several months, so I plan to relax and do as little as I can get away with.”
Joey furrowed a brow, a little more than intrigued. “Do you mind me asking how you found our little town? Most people don’t even realize we’re here unless they get lost and stop for directions.”
Nathan shrugged. “I saw your inn listed in a travel brochure at one of the gas stations in Lake Charles. I prefer small towns to big cities. I’m from Houston, so being this secluded is a welcome change. Less noise. Less traffic. It’s perfect.”
She smiled. “Well, I hope you enjoy your stay. Hopefully, the weather will behave. If the storm remains a category one storm, then we should only get some wind and rain.”
Joey unlocked the door to his room and flipped on the light switch. The room was among the smallest in the six-bedroom home, but it was large enough for one occupant, plus there was an adjoining bathroom, which the other rooms didn’t have. The Stevenson’s were staying on the opposite end of the hallway, in the largest room available, which consisted of two full-size beds and a separate sitting room where their two children could play. Even though it was the biggest room, the closest bathroom was located across the hall, which unfortunately created a lot of chaos in the morning and bedtime when they were all trying to get their baths and get dressed. With any luck, Nathan wouldn’t be bothered by the commotion since they were on opposing ends of the second story.
“So, you’re from the south too?” she inquired.
He nodded as he gazed around the small space. “I’m originally from Oklahoma, but my family and I moved to Houston after I graduated high school, when my dad’s boss relocated him to their headquarters in the city. I’ve been there ever since.”
Joey remained by the door and watched as he set his suitcase and briefcase on the bed before stuffing his hands inside his pants pockets. He seemed quite taken with the inn and its charm, having stopped every other step on their trek through the hallway to look at the pictures on the walls and the various antique pieces of furniture scattered throughout.
“I apologize for it being so dark in here. My son and I are in the process of closing the shutters on all of the windows before the storm arrives, but we’ll open them again as soon as it passes.”
His eyes widened for a split second, leaving her to wonder if he was more shocked by the revelation she had a child or that she could handle manual labor on her own. She didn’t have long to ponder it though, since the moment came and passed in an instant.
“I don’t mind. Is there anything I can help you with?”
For a moment, Joey was taken aback by his question. She couldn’t remember the last time a guest had offered to help her with anything and the kind gesture caught her off guard.
“No, but thank you for asking. Just relax and enjoy yourself. I’m sorry I don’t have televisions in the guest rooms, but there’s one in the living room downstairs, if you’d like to watch TV. Dinner will be ready in a couple of hours, and the dining room is on the first floor too. When you reach the bottom of the stairs, you can find it at the other end of the hallway, the last door on your right across from the kitchen. If you’d rather eat in your bedroom, though, that’s fine too. I know some people don’t like sharing a dining room table with strangers.”
Nathan laughed at her comment. “I have three older brothers and two younger sisters, so I’m used to sharing meals with a lot of people.”
Joey’s jaw dropped open. With no siblings of her own, she couldn’t imagine what that must be like and, honestly, part of her was more than a little envious.
“I’ll try not to eat too fast and save some for everyone else. When you share a table with that many brothers and sisters, it’s usually a fight to see who gets the most food. You have to fend for yourself.”
Joey smiled. Although they had just met, he seemed very approachable and easy to talk to, which was a nice change from the tenants who didn’t socialize much with anyone and who normally spent their time in their rooms or watching television in the living room. She tried not to make much of it though. For all she knew, he had someone special waiting for him back home, not that it should matter anyway.
“I’m making chicken and dumplings, peas and some type of dessert for dinner. I haven’t had the chance to work on the complete menu yet.”
Nathan glanced over his shoulder. The way the corners of his mouth turned upward when he smiled was very charming, and she caught herself smiling back at him, like some awestruck schoolgirl.
To avert her attention elsewhere, she placed the room key on a table beside the door. “If you need anything, just let me know. My room and office are downstairs. When you reach the bottom of the stairs, I’m right across the hallway. If I’m not there, you can usually find me out back tending to the farm. I’m never far away.”
Footsteps echoed in the hall a few seconds before Evan appeared in the doorway, bearing a basket full of eggs and breathless from running. His smile lit up the room, and Joey signed “thank you” before putting an arm around his shoulders and giving him an affectionate squeeze.
“This is my son, Evan.”
Joey pointed at Nathan and signed “Mr. Griffin” and “guest,” so Evan would understand who he was, and in return, Evan gave Nathan a shy wave before bolting down the hallway and back down the stairs. She could hear him running on the wooden floor in the direction of the kitchen, and she held her breath, silently praying he wouldn’t trip and bust the eggs he had gathered.
“He seems like a very sweet kid,” Nathan remarked.
She expected him to act awkwardly, like most strangers did, including the Stevenson’s, when they first met Evan and realized he was deaf. But aside from the momentary look of surprise, Nathan seemed to take it in stride.
“He is, and he’s a hard worker. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”
He grinned. “You and your husband must be very proud.”
Whether it was an intentional ploy for more information or not, his comment and sly smile made her stomach churn with butterflies, something she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
“I am, but I don’t know about his dad. He left when Evan was a baby.”
His smile faded somewhat, and he removed his hands from his pockets and crossed his arms over his chest, as though her comment made him uneasy in some way. She knew it probably wasn’t ladylike to be so forthcoming with such information, but it was the truth, and she wasn’t about to lie to him, or anyone else for that matter. Besides, it was a small town. If she didn’t tell him, then somebody else would if they had the opportunity, and Joey wasn’t known for her subtlety at times either.
“I’m sorry,” he replied.
Joey smiled, hoping it would ease the awkwardness that flowed between them. If there was anything she regretted, it certainly wasn’t Anthony Landry asking for a divorce once they discovered, after many doctor visits and numerous tests, that Evan was deaf. Upon witnessing such cowardice over their son’s disability, she was more than ready to send him on his way and, even though she knew it would be a struggle raising Evan on her own, she was determined to shield him from a father who couldn’t man-up and support him like a father should.
“Please don’t be sorry. I’m not.”
By the way he grinned, she could tell her reply pleased him, which was a relief. If he was going to be staying under her roof for the next few days, the last thing she wanted was any uneasiness between them. Joey cleared her throat and quickly reminded him about dinner as she turned to leave, before she said something else to embarrass herself even further. Once the door was shut between them, she rolled her eyes heavenward and marched toward the stairs.
Joey, you’re being ridiculous.
And yet, she couldn’t help it. There was something oddly fascinating about the handsome stranger from Texas, and the opportunity to find out more about him excited her.

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